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The impact of family factors on the functioning of African-American consumers living with schizophrenia

Copyright 2007 Joseph Michael Guada
THE IMPACT OF FAMILY FACTORS ON THE FUNCTIONING OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN
CONSUMERS LIVING WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
by
Joseph Guada
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIAL WORK)
August 2007

Background: Many studies have tested the impact of different family factors on the functioning of consumers living with schizophrenia. Few studies have concurrently tested these factors together and with a larger sample of poorer African-American consumers and their families, not typically well represented in the literature. Because consumer clinical functioning and psychosocial functioning are known to be minimally correlated, they were treated as two separate domains. Likewise, it is argued that consumer psychosocial functioning is more germane as an outcome variable given that most consumers spend more time in the community than in the past.; Methods: The study took advantage of advanced statistical methodology not previously used in the family mental health literature in order to concurrently test several family factors as exogenous variables for consumer functioning. Two SEM models tested the effect of family factors on consumer psychosocial functioning and clinical functioning.; Results: More family criticism predicted worse consumer clinical functioning replicating a finding already seen in the EE literature with substantially smaller samples of African-Americans. More family contact predicted improved consumer psychosocial functioning while more family dysfunction predicted poorer consumer psychosocial functioning. Fewer family resources predicted greater family pressures while more family pressures predicted greater family dysfunction. Findings suggest that contact with families was crucial, in and of itself, to consumer well-being in the community even given that family dysfunction had a concurrently negative effect on psychosocial functioning.; Conclusion: The study appears to confirm that what affects consumer psychosocial functioning does not affect clinical psychiatric functioning. These findings are new for understanding the contextual factors that impact consumer functioning, especially psychosocial functioning. These findings fill a critical need in the literature for understanding what contextual factors impact consumer clinical and psychosocial functioning.

Copyright 2007 Joseph Michael Guada
THE IMPACT OF FAMILY FACTORS ON THE FUNCTIONING OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN
CONSUMERS LIVING WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
by
Joseph Guada
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIAL WORK)
August 2007